United Kingdom Three Choirs Festival [10] – Vaughan Williams, Fitkin: James Hall (countertenor), Dominic Sedgwick (baritone), Samuel West (narrator), Worcester Cathedral Choristers, Three Choirs Festival Voices, Philharmonia Orchestra / Samuel Hudson (conductor). Gloucester Cathedral, 28.7.2023. (JQ)
Vaughan Williams – Five Mystical Songs (1911); Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910)
Graham Fitkin – The Age of Aspiration (2021)
The backbone of any Three Choirs Festival is the Festival Chorus. Membership of that choir is by audition and it entails a huge commitment on the part of the singers, not just to the concerts in Festival week but also to weeks of demanding rehearsals. The Festival Voices project was designed to cater for good singers who are unable to commit to such a taxing schedule. The Festival Voices is a non-auditioned chorus and I understand that it is intended that it will become a permanent feature of the Three Choirs Festival. This was its debut concert, for which they were conducted by Samuel Hudson, the Director of Music at Worcester Cathedral. The concert turned out to be the proverbial ‘game of two halves’.
The Festival is honouring Vaughan Williams this year and it was a shrewd piece of programme planning to devote the first half to two works by him which were premiered at the Three Choirs Festival within a year of each other. The Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis was first heard at a Festival Concert in Gloucester Cathedral in 1910, and the following year Worcester Cathedral was the venue for the premiere of Five Mystical Songs. Tonight, we heard them in reverse chronological order, but that mattered not. The years 1910 and 1911 were very important ones for VW in terms of establishing his reputation. Not only were those two works premiered, but in addition his mighty A Sea Symphony received its first performance at the Leeds Festival of 1910; might one say these years, in which his reputation was significantly enhanced, were VW’s ‘Age of Aspiration’?
For Five Mystical Songs we had Dominic Sedgwick as soloist. He made a very good impression. I liked his voice and I greatly appreciated the clarity of his diction. I know these wonderful songs well, but even so I had no need to refer to the texts in the programme. Sedgwick’s firm, clear sound was an asset in ‘Easter’ and in the following ‘I got me flowers’, his clear diction and good sense of line was appreciated. He brought rapt engagement to the episode beginning ‘Can there be any day but this’. ‘Love bade me welcome is my favourite among these songs and Sedgwick did not disappoint; the beautiful closing section (‘You must sit down, says Love’) was the highlight of the whole performance. Ideally, I would have liked the choir, singing in the background, to have been quieter, but even so a special atmosphere was distilled. Sedgwick’s contribution ended with an excellent account of ‘The Call’.
The Festival Voices supported the soloist well and when they came into their own in the concluding ‘Antiphon’, they offered enthusiastic singing; I also noted the care they paid to the dynamic markings. Samuel Hudson proved an ideal choice to conduct the concert. At all times his direction was clear and unfussy; watching from behind, I knew exactly where he was in each bar and I strongly suspected that he was very encouraging to his singers. He also obtained sensitive, well-shaded playing from the Philharmonia; theirs was a sophisticated contribution to the success of the performance.
Hudson’s account of Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis was no less successful. Judged solely by the clock, his performance, which I timed at approximately sixteen minutes, was at the swifter end of the spectrum; but the music never seemed to be rushed, although there was urgency where appropriate. The division between the two string orchestras was well managed, even on this cramped platform, and their respective contributions were well differentiated. The four first desk players formed a fine, supple solo quartet. I very much liked the increasing urgency which Hudson injected into the music as he built up to the work’s climax which the responsive, rich-toned orchestra made suitably passionate. This was a distinguished and idiomatic performance and, frankly, it was a relief to hear the music in its original guise after experiencing it in a vocal arrangement a couple of evenings ago (review).
In the second half we heard a performance of The Age of Aspiration by Graham Fitkin (b.1963). This work was first performed in Truro Cathedral in 2021 to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Three Spires Choir. Given that Cornish connection, it was fitting that Fitkin chose as his subject the contribution to science – and much else – of the Cornish chemist, Humphry Davy (1778-1829). Many people, including me, will associate Davy with the invention in 1815 of the Davy lamp, a safety lamp designed for use in mines where flammable gases were – and are – a huge hazard. But, as Fitkin explained in his programme note, Davy’s accomplishments were much greater: ‘Davy was a complex individual, a true polymath who viewed science as an extension of the arts. He was not just a chemist but a poet, an esteemed lecturer, a philosopher, writer, and even a painter. And his views on the world and its politics seem to be as fluid as his scientific and cultural interests.’ Fitkin went on to explain, ‘This work tries to reflect some of the breadth of his work. Different texts are often layered simultaneously, sometimes they are specifically scientific and at other times focused on the historic context. There are “factual” texts, such as Davy’s notated results of experimentation, and there are his poetic, philosophical ruminations including those on the decay of the human body and decay of empires. There are also reminders of some of the pressing issues of his day, including Wilberforce’s famous abolition speech to the House of Commons. I hope this constant intertwining shows how the ramifications of that era are still with us now.’
The work is scored for countertenor soloist, narrator, chorus and orchestra. Tonight’s vocal soloist was the excellent James Hall, whose voice had the necessary cut-through. The narrator was the distinguished actor, Samuel West, who took part in the first performance.
In the hours that have passed between the performance and writing this review I have thought long and hard about what to say about The Age of Aspiration. I can only write honestly about what I heard and further reflection on the performance has confirmed me in my view that this was a very poor programme choice for several reasons. I am sorry to say that within a few minutes of the start of the piece I was thoroughly bored. The music seemed very limited to me; often little cells were repeated but the music didn’t seem to go anywhere, except louder or softer. It wasn’t until about 10 minutes had elapsed that the chorus had a discernible melody to sing (in unison with the countertenor). There were one or two brief stretches of fast, dramatic music but for the most part the music proceeded in slow or moderate time. Textural variety was largely provided by the orchestra. The most interesting musical material was given to the countertenor soloist and James Hall made the most of his opportunities.
I am sorry to say that much of the narrator’s part was unintelligible. In part I think this was due to the inadequacy of the cathedral’s public address system (Samuel West spoke into a microphone). However, I think part of the problem lay also with the nature of his narration. Quite a lot of his text is ‘wordy’ and West struggled to get it across against the choir and orchestra. Less full scoring of these passages might have helped his cause.
The choral parts were problematical too. Quite often, the choir was required to vocalise sounds or fragments of words. Later in the work they did get some opportunities for more conventional singing but I didn’t think that the score gave them much that they could get their collective teeth into. When the Festival Voices project was announced I thought about applying to join but now I am glad I decided not to; I think rehearsing this piece would have been something of a trial and it didn’t seem to me that the rewards of performance were all that great. Earlier in the week, I came out of the performances of works by Gavin Higgins (review) and Francis Pott (review) keen to hear the music again; I have no such wish when it comes to The Age of Aspiration.
So far as I could judge, Hudson kept everything on track, conducting calmly and clearly. However, unlike the music in the first half, this piece gave him no opportunity to display his interpretative gifts. The Philharmonia added colour and, as had been the case earlier in the week, took care over dynamics. Mine may be a minority view of Fitkin’s piece; I should say, in the interests of balance, that there was a warm reception at the end but I wonder how much of this was approval for the performers rather than the music.
Where does all this leave the Festival Voices project? I thought when it was first announced that it was a great idea; I still do. I am not quite sure, though, what the purpose is. If the aim is solely to give an opportunity to singers who can’t commit, for whatever reason, to the Festival Chorus, then I think it has achieved that. However, it would be wonderful if the Festival Voices could attract some younger singers, people aged between 20 and, say, 40, who might use it as a steppingstone into the Festival Chorus. Looking at the choir assembled tonight – which was of a similar size to the Festival Chorus – it seemed to me that there weren’t many young singers among its ranks; most seemed to be of a similar age to me. As to the repertoire, I presume the idea behind the programme was to give the singers a flavour of what the Festival Chorus does by combining traditional Three Choirs fare (Vaughan Williams) and more up to date repertoire (Fitkin). That is a laudable aim. However, the choice of The Age of Aspiration was misguided, even as a taster for contemporary choral music. I can think of several more recent works that would have fulfilled that brief but in a much more rewarding fashion for both singers and audience. Within the last year alone I have heard two recent choral works – Cecilia McDowall’s Da Vinci Requiem and Russell Pascoe’s Secular Requiem – which I feel sure would have been a better choice.
It is a little difficult to evaluate the Festival Voices on the strength of this programme. I thought they made a good contribution to the Five Mystical Songs but I don’t think we got a proper idea of their abilities in The Age of Aspiration. I am delighted to see that the project is to continue at the 2024 Worcester Festival when I feel sure that Holst’s intriguing The Cloud Messenger will be a much better yardstick against which to judge the Festival Voices.
John Quinn
I attended the Three Choirs festival some years ago, when it was at Gloucester. It was not what I had anticipated. Some of what I heard was new to me and I am glad that I learned some new to me composers (Delius), but there was too little of the choirs which is why I originally attended. The focus was more on big showy works with large instrumental and mix chorus groups.